I’m working up the nerve to resume the Star Fox retrospective, which will involve playing the stupid dinosaur planet spinoff adventure buggery game. I could probably chintz out of it by saying, “Oh, it wasn’t intended as a Star Fox game, so it doesn’t count,” but no, that would be too easy. So, look forward to that.

I’m burning out of my Armored Core binge of the past few… months, having plowed through the Portables and both 4’s, as well as starting 2 only to drop it because I was too lazy to find the receivers for my wireless PS2 pads, and wired controls are so 2007-ish now. I’ve reviewed and commented on them, and the unlucky few I call friends have been subject to me nattering on endlessly about how if I could tweak something just so, I could take down Moebius and rule the Arena or suchlike things, one constant kind of remained in the background; name dropping Last Raven as an awful, unfair experience that relies on cheap damage and outright cheating AI opponents. But, with time to kill here and there, and still in need of a fix, I wound up giving Last Raven another shot.

After all, I was spending a week in self imposed quarantine being devoured by insects and drowning in poison. Gotta have some distractions.

Much of it probably still stands- the game is absolutely unforgiving, and starting off fresh gimps the hell out of you. Even importing data from 3P or Silent Line doesn’t help a hell of a lot since the physics changed and everything was tweaked to be ‘techier’ (boosters have varying acceleration ratings, instead of ‘push button, go fast, for example), so my A and B-rated AC designs from the prior two wound up as C’s, and my lightweight hit-and-runner was suddenly rated ‘overweight.’ But with a lot of perseverance, trial and error, and of course, a gamer’s best friend (min-maxing), I started to make progress in the thing, and the more I got used to it, I came to the terrifying realization that I… may like it the best of the series now.

3 and its spinoffs feel to me like the games where your customization means the most, as parts are specialized and not everything is necessarily a weapon you’re strapping on. Returning to 4 after beating LR a few times, it was really a letdown to lose options like orbit guns or equipping shields to compensate for lowered defense on lightweights. Even though tuning was carried on, LR made it less of a chore by narrowing down the number of points and factors to upgrade according to your tastes.

Anyway, just wanna take a moment to thank everyone who’s reading this. Sorry for the lack of updates as has become sadly usual of late. I keep starting a bunch of things, but finishing them if the hard part. So, see ya next time. Which will be less than a freaking month from now.